When speaking about the dangers of today’s #America, I usually parallel what the “Two sides” of this nation is doing with the lead-up of #Nazi #Germany’s rule and eventual #Genocide of over six million Jews amongst other ethnicities. After reading one of my “#Holocaust= America’s Future” posts, people usually scoff at it and call me ridiculous and get offended that I would compare the “Left” or “Right” of setting up human atrocities for the future (I know, SHOCKER). The blueprint laid out for the extermination of #Jews didn’t happen overnight. In fact, there was a preplanned effort to turn the “Good” citizens of #Germany, who would normally detest such cruel actions, to applaud it. It took years, but the German government accomplished it goal.
“But, that was 90 YEARS ago!” I hear you say as you try and convince me that the most intelligent nation in the history of man (up to that point) was actually uninformed and didn’t see the pitfalls of what #Propaganda and #GroupThink could do. Never mind that they saw what happened in the #ArmenianGenocide only some years before the Holocaust. I’ll give you that argument and chalk it up to almost a century ago #Naivety.
Let’s fast-forward the clock to a little country named #Rwanda 1994, shall we? Rwanda is a beautiful, mostly mountainous country that lays in the Middle eastern region in the continent of #Africa. The population is roughly 12.6 million people living on 10,169 square miles of land which makes it the most densely populated country on the continent. In 1994, around one million #Tutsi, and #Hutu moderates where annihilated in around one hundred days. How did they get to the point of killing their own citizens? Well, it wasn’t overnight.
Without bogging you down with two thousand words about the history of Rwanda and the politics surrounding it, let me just give you a quick fly-by and encourage you to read up on it at your leisure. According to #Wikipedia, #BBC and other sources, the Rwandan genocide was known as the “Genocide against the Tutsi” which was a mass slaughtering of the Tutsi, #Twa and moderate Hutu during the “Rwandan Civil War”.
The Tutsi were the minority in the country and a #CivlWar broke out after the Rwandan Patriotic Front or #RPF (a rebel group of Tutsi refugees) invaded Northern Rwanda. This was in 1990. The war raged on for another three years with no clear winner until the Rwandan government, led by #President Juvenal Heybyarimana, signed the #ArushaAccords with the RPF on August 4, 1993. Most historians believe that the Tutsi Genocide was planned from this time on, almost a year before the actual date of the massacre (April 7, 1994).
From 1990 on, the Hutu government were shipping hundreds of thousands of machetes and other types of blades to the surrounding towns to the Hutu people to “prepare” them for fighting back against the Tutsi resistance. The #Genocide commenced after President #Haybyarimana and his official’s airplane was shot down, killing everyone on board. The government blamed the Tutsi RPF for the incident although, years after the assassination, there is no clear evidence of the Tutsi people having been involved at all.
This was the spark that ignited the tinderbox in Rwanda. Up to 100,000 people a day were butchered with the shipped-in machetes and other types of home-made weapons. The acting government ordered the Hutu people to kill their Tutsi neighbors, rape the Tutsi women and slaughter every child and infant. The Hutu people followed their orders without hesitation. Seventy percent of the Tutsi people in Rwanda where wiped of the face of the earth leaving 95,000 orphans to fend for themselves.
This was a grotesque act of #Evil barbarism that wasn’t very long ago. I was 15 years old when this happened. I remember it well and though I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, I knew it was bad. I remember thinking how lucky I was to be living in #America because nothing like that would ever happen here; at least not “these days”.
As I was reading up on Rwanda last night (I know, light reading before bed), I couldn’t help but be shocked at the stark similarities of what’s happening in the streets in many of our cities today. We have demonized a group of people, not by their ethnicity, but their #Ideals. We have turned the #Wicked (Lawbreakers) as good and the #Good (Law enforcement and country-loving people) as the wicked. There seems to be someone, behind the scenes, arming these “protesters” and organizing them. I fear that something even worse than what’s going on has been planned and the spark that’ll light the tinderbox has yet to be ignited. But soon, it will.
If you look at what’s going on today in this #Nation, you see a #Leftist people rioting, looting, and killing in the name of #Justice. They aren’t only being ignored by our citizens but are being applauded. Even the people who are being arrested are being released to walk the streets, causing mayhem the very next day. We have the #Democrat party who at first were encouraging these “protests”, now blaming the #Republican party, more specifically, the #Trumpers for all of the chaos in the streets when, in fact, there is absolutely NO evidence of this. On the contrary, all the evidence points to the left and their #Marxist agenda. Do you see the parallels?
If you say that what happened in the #OttomanEmpire, Nazi Germany or Rwanda would never happen here, think again. The German people were the most educated people in the history of the world (at that moment in history) but still killed with #Justification in their minds. The Ottomans were the most prosperous in the history of the world (at that moment in history). The Rwandans were a relatively poor country, basically the opposite of the previous two “nations”, but they carried out the same kind of atrocity. So what’s the common denominator between these 3 nations?
It’s the hearts of men.
The heart is capable of some very good things in this world and in our lives, but it also has the capability of committing the most heinous of crimes. If you think YOU could never be capable of such things, think again. We are all created with a “curse” built within us. It’s a black spot on the heart. Its very faint, but, if fed, it grows exponentially and eventually eclipses the “good” that the heart can lead us to.
#GulagArchipelago was quoted saying:
“The line separating good and evil passes not through the states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.”
We all have that darkness inside us. We are all capable of being an Ottoman, a Nazi or a Rwandan. The only things that separates us INDIVIDUALLY is our commitment to our #Lord, #JesusChrist.
If we are honest with ourselves, truly honest, we know that we are capable of the most horrific things we can imagine. That should scare you. You all know how much I like big “buts”. BUT, we also have the capability to do the greatest good we can imagine. We are born in this sinful world and born in sin and evil(a). Only through the transforming love of Jesus and His #Forgiveness can we start shrinking that black spot on our heart to as minimal as it can get(b). We wont EVER get rid of the blackness (evil) completely on this side of #Heaven. We carry that with us for the rest of our lives. That’s why you catch yourself being angry at someone who cut you off in traffic or gave you a scathing comment on your latest post on social media. Even hearing your alarm go off early in the morning (that YOU set) puts negative thoughts in your heart and mind. That black spot is always there. And its waiting for you to feed it so it can spring up like a vine and choke the very life-blood of your existence.
We need to keep our hearts in check. Its not a one-time action that you can check off on a “to-do” list and carry on with your life. This is a CONSTANT, daily, hourly and sometimes minute-by-minute action(c).
Lets not look at this post and try and figure out who the Tutsi are in this nation and who the Hutu are. That’s not what this post is about. This post is about being aware of what the human heart is capable of and where we, as a nation, can stoop to if we continue this road.
I’m going to close with a story from one of my dear #Heroes, Dr. #RaviZacharias. He went to see the leader of #Hamas and talked with him only briefly but Ravi’s closing words to the Hamas leader was this:
“Sheik, you and I may never see each other again, so I want you to hear me. A little distance from here is a mountain upon which Abraham went 5,000 years ago to offer his son. You may say the son was one; I may say it’s another. Let’s not argue about that. He took his son up there. And as the axe was about to fall, God said, ‘Stop.’” I said, “Do you know what God said after that?” He shook his head. I said, “God said, ‘I myself will provide.’” He nodded his head. I said, “Very close to where you and I are sitting, Sheik, is a hill. Two thousand years ago, God kept that promise and brought his own Son and the axe did not stop this time. He sacrificed his own Son.”
I said, “Sheik, I just want you to hear this. Until you and I receive the Son God has provided, we’ll be offering our own sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for many of the wrong reasons.”
Our Hearts are BLACK and our sons and daughters pay the price of this cancer. Until we admit our hearts are this and confess our sins, we will continue to pass this cancer down and we will allow our children to be snuffed out because of this evil. Pray for healing today. Pray for #Forgiveness. Pray for this nation. God is not through with us yet. We still have a pulse, but it’s faint. The good news is, God can move mountains if we have just the smallest amount of faith(d). But we must turn towards Him.
Amen.
Biblical References:
a) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
-Romans 3:23
b) “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
-2 Corinthians 12:9
c) “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
-Proverbs 4:23
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
-1 Timothy 1:5
d) “…Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
-Matthew 17:20